Blush + Gold Styled Shoot

I’ve been really inspired by the Versailles gardens lately, reminiscing on my trips there, and imagining what types of florals and romantic dinner settings I might want to create in modern day that still capture the essence of a garden style classic look that might correlate to the still life paintings inside the palace. 

I know there is a lot of inspiration out there right now using blush and golds in shoots, but I wanted to do something that switched the order around slightly, playing within the classic color scheme. So, putting a bride in a blush dress, and painting some of the ferns gold in her bouquet were some subtle ways of offering some new inspiration for a look that is so loved. Since I do both fresh and dried flower arrangements for couples, I wanted to use both in a shoot to show how they can intermingle with harmony as we see in the florals on the napkin details. This shoot really is the result of my wild imagination. My husband and I went to visit Versailles for our anniversary 4 years ago, and there was a tiny house on the property (probably originally for the grounds keepers, or maybe as a large shed), we joked and said we’d live there if given the opportunity, and I sort of just imagined what our tiny dinner parties would be like if we ever lived in such a tiny place in the French countryside or on a minuscule corner of the Versailles gardens. And as a result, a bridal shoot was born. 

Vendors include:

Photos: Alissa Noelle Photography

Florals & Styling: Brie's Honeybees & Flowers

Dishes: Dish Wish

Calligraphy: Graceline Arts

Dress: Celia Grace

Hair + Make up: Katharine Sanchez

Model: Bijon Hill

Turning 30 Featured on Style Me Pretty Living

In case you didn't see, my 30th birthday, which I styled and did all the floral design for, was featured on the Style Me Pretty Living blog.

Go check out more photos at the link above, but for now, here are just a few favorites to enjoy:

Talented collaborators include:

Photos by Sara Weir

Hair + Make up: Katharine Sanchez
Glasses + Utensils: Dish Wish
Invitation: Letter Lodge
Cakes: The Good Cookies

Dried Flowers fall 2015

This was a dried flower order I shipped to the east coast for a couple for a fall wedding. The bride shipped me the leather she wanted used and the maps as binding. Something a little out of the ordinary to make some unique detail shots.

Flowers by Brie's Honeybees & Flowers

Photo by Sara Weir 

How to Clean Beeswax

Have you ever wondered about the steps it takes to get clean, candle-using beeswax? 

Step 1: own a hive, take care of it, pesticide free.

Step 2: harvest honey (photo not shown). 

Step 3: After a honey harvest, you will have the left over crushed up comb as shown below. Place it on a self-made filter consisting of window screen and paper towels, which is placed above a pan filled with water, and all is placed inside a solar wax melter.

*The sun will melt the wax, and it will drip into the water below and harden once the sun goes down.

Step 4: remove the towel with the filtered out excess impurities (i.e. left over bits of honey, pollen, dirt).

Step 5: reveal the beautiful beeswax that can now be repurposed for candles.